Effective Questions and Language in Instruction

Through this week’s readings I was able to learn that there are many different techniques to reach and connect with students as the instructor.

In the reading from Dryer on Effective Questioning I was able to learn that questions are often divided into two separate categories: lower-level and higher-level.  The lower-level is geared toward the knowledge, comprehension, and simple application levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy.  The higher-level on the other hand requires a more complex application, analysis, synthesis and/or evaluation skills.  These two different levels are each important and effective as long as it is used in the correct situation.  Another thing that I learned from Dryer’s article is that there are multiple techniques to maximize a student’s level of participation such as:

-          Call students by their names

-          Do not call on volunteers but instead direct questions to entire class

-          Phrase question before calling on student

-          Do not repeat all of student’s responses to encourage students to pay close attention to their classmates

-          Ask question throughout lesson, not just at end

Additionally as the instructor I am supposed to wait at least three seconds for student’s to respond to give them enough time to process the question.

Some of the other things that I learned during this week’s readings are in terms of field trips.  I know that field trips are more often than not very challenging for a teacher to organize because the administration is often hesitant.  However, I believe that the benefits of the field trip definitely outweigh the costs.   When planning a field trip it is important to make sure that the students know what to expect going into it and that there are objectives for during the trip as well as for a trip reflection. 

Overall I learned techniques to add into the classroom to better interact and engage with my student’s learning and also more about how to better facilitate and organize events. 

Interest Approach - Lab Reflection

          This week's lab was titled "Interest Approach" and I was tasked with developing a creative interest approach to ideally serve as "the hook" to engage students in the lesson.  For this lab I decided to prepare a lesson that connects to my Large Animal Care unit and I prepared my activity was based on animal by-products. 

          The lesson began with me setting the following items on a table in the front of the classroom: lipstick, lotion, margarine, jello, crayons, leather boot, wool sweater, make-up, candle, shaving cream, and soap.  These items are all by-products of large animals and they are very common in our everyday use.  Students were able to match pictures f the animals with the by-products to help bridge the connection of another reason why animals are so beneficial for people. 

          There were several things that I wish I could have done differently about my lab presentation and I was able to reflect upon that once I viewed my presentation.  To begin, I was glad that I reviewed the objectives, however I wish that there was a way that I could make that more "fun."  I wonder if there is a difference between the objectives that I write as a teacher for lesson plans and ones that I display on a board for students?  I also noted that I constantly gave students a time frame like "Okay you have three minutes to complete this task"  perhaps I should omit the time frame and then as I observe students finishing I can make an wrap up announcement.  As far as my classroom management techniques go, I thought that I did a good job of redirecting students attention back to the task at hand - there were quite a few pupils who were a chatty Kathy.  I was very diligent about providing students opportunities to ask questions by constantly asking if there was anything that needed to be clarified, however, perhaps I ask that too much and instead should just rely on a student to raise their hand when they have a misunderstanding.  The actual interest approach activity could have been enhanced by placing the objects all around the room and have student move at their own pace to each item.  This would have eliminated the "clumping" around the front table and it would have been more engaging.  I liked that I provided positive reinforcement and encouragement.  As a future teacher I caught myself saying things like "can you share with us?" asking as if my directions were a question.  I hope I can avoid that phrase in the future because I am the teacher and I am expected to provide demands for activities, not give students the option. 

          Overall I think my lab presentation certainly improved from the previous week although, I acknowledge that there is always ways to polish something (someone) better.  Looking forward to your advice!

Weekly Writing - 9/22/14

It appears to me that everything is a process.  There is no “one step and BAM you are done.”  No, there might be one prompt, but I hope that no one is naïve enough to think that there is only one question in the prompt.  Sometimes these processes and steps are overwhelming; however, most times they have a purpose.  In the case of educational instruction there is no one easy solution, that would be boring, instead there are many steps and systems to follow. 

Take for instance writing a unit plan, it is not advisable for a teacher to write in each lesson “Read and Understand………” that would not be engaging at all for the students and learning would most likely not be achieved.  If one were to utilize the vocabulary list at the end of Whittington’s article on Objectives, they would realize that there are many techniques that help to prompt learning.  In the same article it stated that “Students and teachers benefit from writing objectives at cognitive levels that challenge students to think.”  This requires a process, but it is certainly a worthwhile one. 

In the readings from Newcomb there is a list of the characteristics of good lecturers which include: knowing audience, being enthusiastic, speaking clearly and fluently, avoiding distracting mannerisms, illustrating major points well, doing a good job of summarizing.  There are many different techniques that are tools for agriculture teachers to use to provide meaningful instruction for their students. 

Groseta focuses largely on Cooperative Learning as a stellar technique for teachers to use.  This type of learning has both social benefits and academic gains.  One of the points that Groseta mentions that I feel is very accurate is that “Learning materials with the expectation that you will have to explain it to peers results in more frequent use of higher-level reasoning strategies than does learning material to pass a test.”

All of the readings connect to my point that learning and teaching, like everything else is a process.  There are a variety of different approaches and styles that the teacher can utilize to make a deeper learning for students.  They also all connect to the following visual related to Bloom’s Taxonomy.

    

First Day of School Reflection

I began this lab feeling a bit stressed for time, I knew that my workshop was the correct amount of time, but I also knew that there were only five minutes left in our actual college class and I had another college class in 20 minutes.  So when I began my lab I was certainly a little flustered, which is less than ideal.  However, in hind sight perhaps that made it a great lab for reflecting on.

As a future teacher I have to be, I HAVE TO BE adaptable and willing to change and adjust my schedule or my plans.  I will be expected to make deadlines, teach students, and handle specific needs or complaints of students, take attendance, act professional, and much more.  Unfortunately I know that sometimes I will be stressed or worked up, but as the educator I am expected to proceed with a certain poise and grace, not edgy like a jagged razor blade.

During my actual presentation I thought it was a nice caring move to physically greet my students with a hand shake and then hand them with the personalized letter.  This was kind and helped to start the process of a positive teacher to student relationship, additionally it instantly gave the students something to do.  This set the tone immediately that my classroom is a working classroom and it enabled me to observe to see how students interacted with one another.  Another plus that is not shown in the video is that this simple activity helps me to learn about my students and the same vice-versa as well as gives me a glimpse of their writing skills.

I noticed that when I began class I did not have my objectives and goals displayed and I should have been more prepared to have the clearly and neatly visible.  I also use a pluthera of hand motions and usually it aids with the message delivery, but sometimes it appeared a little goofy.  Now that I saw it I will be consciously aware of my gestures as I speak, to hopefully harness them better.  Another thing that I will improve is my speaking skills.  I must practice being a better speaker.  I used the word “um” a few times (I hate it when other people say it and then to catch myself doing it – this must change!) and I frequently said “ok” (I just think that this is a very juvenile phrase, and I am an adult).

The actual content of what I delivered was good I thoroughly enjoyed creating my classroom expectations poster because it was full of puns that all connect to agriculture.  This helped to teach students basic things such as: a “ewe” is a female sheep, or “kidding” is the process of delivering goats, or “sprouting” is the germination process of plants.  The end of my session I handed out paper to explain how the students would have to match up and figure out the individual names of a species.  For instance bovine is: Bull, Steer, Cow, Heifer. 

At the conclusion I asked students if they had any clarifying questions and let them know that I was willing to help.  Overall, the workshop was definitely a growing experience for me as the instructor. 

Video Resume

Here is my video resume.  I hope you enjoy!

Shippensburg FFA

Above is the video that I created for Shippensburg FFA.  I hope you enjoy learning about my cooperating center for the spring of 2015!

Weekly Writing - Week 3

          I can remember three years ago when I was a State FFA Officer I had the privilege to travel to many different schools to facilitate something referred to as a “Chapter Visit.”  A chapter visit is essentially a day where state officers serve as the teacher and teach different skills connecting leadership and agriculture.  At Laurel High School there was a poster hanging up that said “Prior Preparation Prevents Poor Performance.”  This quote stuck with me because it was a fun alliteration intertwined with a powerful message.  The message is this: if one plans ahead than their performance is automatically better.  This message holds true to every aspect of life, but especially to my current chapter of life.  This chapter revolves around learning about curriculum development and creating instruction.  Through my courses and readings it is obvious that in order for me to be a good teacher I must plan ahead.   

          In this week’s reading “Methods of Teaching Agriculture” by Newcomb, I enhanced my understanding about planning for instruction.  First in order to create the units of instruction the goals of what the students are going to learn must be defined.  Secondly, the teacher should have their own goals known as instructional objectives.  This helps to differentiate things between relevant and nice to know.  Newcomb also shared the three different domains of learning: cognitive, psychomotor, and affective and how they are beneficial tools.  Additionally, when writing objectives they should use verbs that specify a behavior that can be observed and measured.  Several other many points that Newcomb mentioned where about how to create an interest approach and potentially connecting it to student’s SAEs and asking puzzling questions.  At the end of a lesson he mentioned that it is necessary to connect everything together and ask follow up questions to strengthen the student’s understanding.

          Another reading for this week was “Anticipatory Set/ Hook Research Base.”  This reading emphasized that the hook was to grab student’s attention and to engage as many students as possible.  Several methods that are great in serving as a hook are: Provocative questions, Review of previous lessons, pictures/ cartoons, stories, startling or unexpected statements, and referring students to specific visuals such as graphic organizer or thinking maps. 

          This week’s readings all connect to the quote that I remember for Laurel High School and remind me that in order to be an affective teacher I must plan ahead.  Additionally while I am planning I can make sure that I make my lessons practical and engaging by connecting the content to daily life!  

RTL Reflection

For the RTL activity I taught my students (my peers) about Shade Gardens.  I took the information in the handout and modified it to enhance the student’s learning.  I modified it by actually printing pictures offline of the different plants because the plants in the handout were not visually clear.  Then I took those pictures and put them on index cards and wrote out the definition of the plants on a separate index card which served as the match.  For the activity of the lesson I created a memory game which required students to repeat the definition upon finding a match.  I did this because it was hands on and it helped to empower the students to be responsible for their own learning.  Below are some of the positives as well as things that need more attention that I reflected on from my presentation.

Positives:

·         The introduction of the Shade Garden lesson was good because it was very through. 

·         The students understood the goals and how to play memory

·         The two groups worked well together

·         I enjoyed the fact that it was a group assessment I think that it served as a reward for the students because they worked very well together to decipher the material

Needs More Attention:

·         My grammar could be improved.  I used the word “has” instead of “have”

·         The activity might have been better if I would of used one group of five students instead of two small groups

·         Time Management: The lesson was very short so the rules could have been more simplistic from the beginning

o   For example instead of having students only flip one card over at a time to try and find a match in memory they could have been allotted three cards to try to match at a time to increase their chances of finding a match at a faster rate. 

o   This would have enabled the students to have more time to strengthen their understandings of the definitions of the shade garden plants. 

·         Another way to improve this would be to review the definitions and distinguishing characteristics as a class prior to administering the assessment. 

·         I am not sure what I could have done differently besides being the time keeper but I wish I could have had a more integral part with the learning and helping the information to “click.”

·         Towards the end of the assignment I should have made sure that the answer key matched the assessment that I gave the students, but nonetheless that was not pertinent to the lesson

o   Even though it was a mistake the only negative affect was it took more of my time to correct it, it did not hinder the student’s scores

Weekly Writing - 2

What if every moment was an E-Moment?  You know, something engaging?  That would be beyond awesome in a scholastic environment.  Students would want to actually learn the content and students of all backgrounds and abilities would be able to grasp and comprehend the objectives within the lesson. 

This video shows that teens do not want their disabilities to define who they are.  This shows that everyone wants to be engaged.  This week's readings provides many ways for educators to ensure that everyone has E-Moments!

This video is from DO-IT ~ Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology

All of this week’s readings do not necessarily revolve around the term “E-Moment” like in Reardon’s, Strategies for Great Teaching, however, all of the readings imply a sense of deeper learning and sense of engagement. 

In addition to describing the E-Moments, Reardon also explains five strategies that aid in achieving great teaching:

1)      Chunking = organizing information into meaningful units

2)      Rote Rehearsal = repeating information of a skill many times

3)      Elaborative Rehearsal = immersing information in meaning or highlighting its relevance

4)      Pattern recognition = identifying familiar patterns

5)      Emotional involvement = embedding information with feelings or emotions

Understanding by Design Framework focuses heavily on the concept of “Backward Design.”  The idea of this learning style being backwards is mainly to indicate that it is a different style for curriculum.  This suggests from the very name that it is different and will help to make one open minded upon approaching this style.  The three components of it are: Identify Desired Results, Determine Assessment Evidence, and Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction.

In A Self-Directed Guide to Designing Courses for Significant Learning the author discusses the importance of using “Background Design” connecting the two readings.  The author stresses the importance of reflection and making certain that there is time for many types of assessments and feedback.

Learning how to learn

Foundational knowledge

Application

Integration

+   Human Dimension               

 Components of Significant Learning

Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy includes six major steps for learning: Creating, Evaluating, Analyzing, Applying, Understanding, and Remembering.  These six steps tie nicely into the Pennsylvania Academic Standards and Assessment Anchors.  Standards have been in place since 1999 by law in Pennsylvania.  There are standards for the average students as well as different standards for students with disabilities.  Standards aid as a resource for the teachers, administration, parents, students, and community members to help gauge and understand what the expectations are of the students.  They also help with creating goals and expectations for standardized testing.  The main assessment anchors are: clear, focused, aligned, grade appropriate, organized, rigorous, and manageable. 

The goals of Bloom’s Taxonomy as well as the standards and anchors can be achieved by utilizing many different learning and teaching styles.  One of these methods is known as “Scaffolding.”  Scaffolding can be defined as “A process in which students are given support until they can apply new skills and strategies independently.”  The five main guidelines for scaffolding are: beginning with what students can do, help students achieve success quickly, help students to “be” like everyone else, know when it is time to stop, help students to be independent when they have command of the activity. 

For the Universal Design for Learning it is essentially a method that reiterates what all the other readings focus on: a curriculum that is designed to serve all learners.  The description says that it provides “a blueprint” for creating different means and tools to teach students with diverse needs.  There are three main principles: Multiple means of representation, Multiple means of action and expression, and multiple means of engagement.  The final principle brings us back full circle to Reardon’s “E-Moment” having things that are engaging.  All of the readings create techniques and strategies to ensure that learning and reflecting can be engaging so that learners may retain the information.  This ultimately creates smarter youth who become life-long learners. 

Weekly Writing - 1

one could say that this week's readings (the first of many) caught me by surprise, especially when I read the following quote from Wong:''

                           "The first year of teaching can be frightening"
1) "Teacher education will not have prepared you."
2) "Student teaching will not have prepared you."
3) "The district may not have prepared you."
4) "Yet you will be expected to perform immediately."


As one can imagine, I was less than impressed because I am paying a tremendous amount of money for an education to prepare me to be a teacher, and yet Wong says that I will not be prepared.  Well, I suppose and hope that Wong was wrong because a lot of the problems that he points out with beginning teachers, I know will be addressed during this academic semester.  One of the fast approaching labs for my student teacher co-hort is based on the first day of school and how to facilitate and engage.  Another thing that was mentioned in the reading was a new idea for me and that is an Induction Teacher Program.  This is to help the teacher enter their first year knowing that they have a support team and that can make a huge impact.


According to "New Teacher Induction" another article written by Wong, Flowing Wells is in its 15th year of training 30-50 first year teachers on five attributes critical to classroom success:

1. Effective instruction practices
2. Effective classroom management procedures and routines
3. A sensitivity to and an understanding of the Flowing Wells community
4. Teaching as an avenue for life-long learning and professional growth
5. Unity and teamwork among the entire community

Wong's writing nicely connects to what Garton and Torres as well as Newcomb's Methods of Teaching Agriculture because they all are booming with ideas and strategies for beginning teachers. 

Gatron focuses on the top ten effective teacher characteristics: Clarity, Variability, Enthusiasm, Task Oriented/Business-Like Behavior, Positive Reinforcement, Student Opportunity to Learn, Avoided Criticism, Structuring Comments, Effective Questioning, and Humor.

Newcomb uses the first two chapters of his book to explain factors that influence decisions about teaching as well as the principles of teaching and learning.  Newcomb is program specific because the book is entirely devoted to the agriculture instructor.  The eleven dimensions of a complete program are: The School Labotatory, Supervised Experience, FFA, Use of Community Resource, Facilities and Organizations, People in the Community, Advisory Committees, Parents, Teachers and Administrators in the School.

Overall it is nice to realize that even though that one quote from Wong is a bit nerve wracking, that my instructors at Penn State are working to address some of the key components that I addressed in this blog.  They are helping to ensure that when I finally enter the classroom I will be able to effectively manage my students.